Issues-Jail Issues-Various Proposals Submitted

 
Previous Jail Proposals:

The following are various proposals we have found in order to address the current jail situation, there may be additional proposals and if identified, we will add them to the listing:

1.      Former Sheriff Lewis Hawkins proposed a 24.8 million dollar jail with 264 new beds.  He intended to close the current jail and build north of the courthouse and also have a walkway from the jail into the current courthouse. Sheriff Hawkins proposed funding the facility with a 0.35 cent sales tax for fifteen (15) years then the tax would drop to 0.25 as a permanent tax for operations and maintenance of the facility. This proposal was voted on May 13, 2008 and defeated by the voters of the County with the margin being 2,985 to 1,321.

2.      Current Sheriff Randall Edwards initially proposed in November of 2009, his proposal would have cost 17.9 million dollars and would have provided a total of 308 beds (would have added 236 beds). The proposal was to retain our current jail and also construct a new facility. Edwards proposal also provided that we could go up 148 beds bringing the total to 456 inmates during an overflow.

3.      Edwards proposed a 51 bed stand alone dormitory structure, after an August 2009 threat of closure which he estimated would cost $750,000.

4.      Edwards proposal for a pod idea, added to current jail and would be a two story pod capable of holding 75 prisoners, proposed May 2^nd 2010;

5.      Edwards AIP of Norman Proposal on May 30^th 2010, adding 150 beds to the current jail at a cost of 7.7 million to 8.2 million

6.      The Anderson plan (County Commissioner David Anderson) was for a total of 256 beds.  This plan also kept our old jail and planned to add 186 beds. The cost of the proposed facility was 8.5 million dollars and the estimated operations of the jail would have increased by 1.9 million dollars a year. The proposal called for the redirection of 0.10 cents from the Juvenile Justice Center to commissioners who would determine where the funds should be applied. The estimate was the redirection would yield about 1.366 million dollars in annual revenue. This proposal was defeated by the voters on 04/05/2011 by a vote of 4,806 against and 4,331 for the plan.

7.      Another Edwards dormitory plan proposed in June of 2011, the Juvenile Center would loan the County 3 million dollars at 4.5 percent interest for 112 bed dormitory along with new kitchen and laundry facilities. This was later found to not be feasible due to the wording of the original bond issue for the Juvenile Justice Center;